In 2020, tabulator tapes on 315,000 votes in Georgia did not have three signatures as required by law. They were uncertified. This is a big deal. The votes were illegal.

The admission came during a Dec. 9 hearing before the Georgia State Election Board (SEB) stemming from a challenge filed by David Cross, a local election integrity activist. Cross filed a challenge with the SEB in March 2022.

Polling workers never signed off. Fulton County admitted it.

Fulton County Board of Registration and Elections attorney Ann Brumbaugh admitted they never certified the votes.

Georgia law requires that election officials have each ballot scanner print three closing tapes at the end of each voting day. Poll workers must sign these tapes or include a documented reason for refusal. Voting laws also require poll workers to begin each day of voting by printing and signing a “zero tape” showing that voting machines are starting at zero votes.

The Lawsuit

This comes amid a Department of Justice investigation seeking to inspect the records and ballots from the 2020 election, which are in the custody of the Fulton County Superior Court’s Clerk’s Office.

The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Atlanta, accuses the Fulton County Board of Registration and Elections and Clerk of Courts Che Alexander of failing to comply with a subpoena sent to the county in October. The subpoena requested “all used and void ballots, stubs of all ballots, signature envelopes, and corresponding envelope digital files from the 2020 General Election in Fulton County,” the lawsuit reads.

The Justice Department stated that its request aimed to ensure Georgia’s compliance with federal election laws and to investigate what officials claimed were “unexplained anomalies in vote tabulation.”

In response to multiple requests for the information, Alexander told the department that the requested records were “under seal and may not be produced absent a Court Order,” the lawsuit reads.